Computer Vision And Shape Recognition

This is an up-to-date volume of selected and expanded papers originating from Vision Interface 88, a conference held in Edmonton, Canada. A broad range of topics are covered-from image processing to hardware design. They include robot vision, biomedical imaging, remote sensing and parallel processing, shape recognition and features, computational methods in vision, and three dimensional vision and application.

Shape detection techniques are an important aspect of computer vision and are used to transform raw image data into the symbolic representations needed for object recognition and location. However, the availability and application of research data relating to shape detection has traditionally been limited by a lack of computational and mathematical skill on the part of the intended end-user. As a result progress in areas such as the automation of visual inspection techniques, where shape detection couls play a pivotal role, has been relatively slow. In this volume, Violet Leavers, an established author and researcher in the field, examines the Hough Transform, a technique which is particularly relevant to industrial applications. By making computational recipes and advice available to the non-specialist, the book aims to popularize the technique, and to provide a bridge between low level computer vision tasks and specialist applications. In addition, Shape Detection in Computer Vision Using the Hough Transform assesses practical and theoretical issues which were previously only available in scientific literature in a way which is easily accessible to the non-specialist user. Shape Detection in Computer Vision Using the Hough Transform fills an obvious gap in the existing market. It is an important textbook which will provide postgraduate students with a thorough grounding in the field, and will also be of interest to junior research staff and program designers.

Shape detection techniques are an important aspect of computer vision and are used to transform raw image data into the symbolic representations needed for object recognition and location. However, the availability and application of research data relating to shape detection has traditionally been limited by a lack of computational and mathematical skill on the part of the intended end-user. As a result progress in areas such as the automation of visual inspection techniques, where shape detection couls play a pivotal role, has been relatively slow. In this volume, Violet Leavers, an established author and researcher in the field, examines the Hough Transform, a technique which is particularly relevant to industrial applications. By making computational recipes and advice available to the non-specialist, the book aims to popularize the technique, and to provide a bridge between low level computer vision tasks and specialist applications. In addition, Shape Detection in Computer Vision Using the Hough Transform assesses practical and theoretical issues which were previously only available in scientific literature in a way which is easily accessible to the non-specialist user. Shape Detection in Computer Vision Using the Hough Transform fills an obvious gap in the existing market. It is an important textbook which will provide postgraduate students with a thorough grounding in the field, and will also be of interest to junior research staff and program designers.

This comprehensive and authoritative text/reference presents a unique, multidisciplinary perspective on Shape Perception in Human and Computer Vision. Rather than focusing purely on the state of the art, the book provides viewpoints from world-class researchers reflecting broadly on the issues that have shaped the field. Drawing upon many years of experience, each contributor discusses the trends followed and the progress made, in addition to identifying the major challenges that still lie ahead. Topics and features: examines each topic from a range of viewpoints, rather than promoting a specific paradigm; discusses topics on contours, shape hierarchies, shape grammars, shape priors, and 3D shape inference; reviews issues relating to surfaces, invariants, parts, multiple views, learning, simplicity, shape constancy and shape illusions; addresses concepts from the historically separate disciplines of computer vision and human vision using the same “language” and methods.

The very significant advances in computer vision and pattern recognition and their applications in the last few years reflect the strong and growing interest in the field as well as the many opportunities and challenges it offers. The second edition of this handbook represents both the latest progress and updated knowledge in this dynamic field. The applications and technological issues are particularly emphasized in this edition to reflect the wide applicability of the field in many practical problems. To keep the book in a single volume, it is not possible to retain all chapters of the first edition. However, the chapters of both editions are well written for permanent reference. This indispensable handbook will continue to serve as an authoritative and comprehensive guide in the field.

The visual recognition problem is central to computer vision research. From robotics to information retrieval, many desired applications demand the ability to identify and localize categories, places, and objects. This tutorial overviews computer vision algorithms for visual object recognition and image classification. We introduce primary representations and learning approaches, with an emphasis on recent advances in the field. The target audience consists of researchers or students working in AI, robotics, or vision who would like to understand what methods and representations are available for these problems. This lecture summarizes what is and isn't possible to do reliably today, and overviews key concepts that could be employed in systems requiring visual categorization. Table of Contents: Introduction / Overview: Recognition of Specific Objects / Local Features: Detection and Description / Matching Local Features / Geometric Verification of Matched Features / Example Systems: Specific-Object Recognition / Overview: Recognition of Generic Object Categories / Representations for Object Categories / Generic Object Detection: Finding and Scoring Candidates / Learning Generic Object Category Models / Example Systems: Generic Object Recognition / Other Considerations and Current Challenges / Conclusions

Computer vision has been successful in several important applications recently. Vision techniques can now be used to build very good models of buildings from pictures quickly and easily, to overlay operation planning data on a neuros- geon’s view of a patient, and to recognise some of the gestures a user makes to a computer. Object recognition remains a very di cult problem, however. The key questions to understand in recognition seem to be: (1) how objects should be represented and (2) how to manage the line of reasoning that stretches from image data to object identity. An important part of the process of recognition { perhaps, almost all of it { involves assembling bits of image information into helpful groups. There is a wide variety of possible criteria by which these groups could be established { a set of edge points that has a symmetry could be one useful group; others might be a collection of pixels shaded in a particular way, or a set of pixels with coherent colour or texture. Discussing this process of grouping requires a detailed understanding of the relationship between what is seen in the image and what is actually out there in the world.

This book introduces the fundamentals of computer vision (CV), with a focus on extracting useful information from digital images and videos. Including a wealth of methods used in detecting and classifying image objects and their shapes, it is the first book to apply a trio of tools (computational geometry, topology and algorithms) in solving CV problems, shape tracking in image object recognition and detecting the repetition of shapes in single images and video frames. Computational geometry provides a visualization of topological structures such as neighborhoods of points embedded in images, while image topology supplies us with structures useful in the analysis and classification of image regions. Algorithms provide a practical, step-by-step means of viewing image structures. The implementations of CV methods in Matlab and Mathematica, classification of chapter problems with the symbols (easily solved) and (challenging) and its extensive glossary of key words, examples and connections with the fabric of CV make the book an invaluable resource for advanced undergraduate and first year graduate students in Engineering, Computer Science or Applied Mathematics. It offers insights into the design of CV experiments, inclusion of image processing methods in CV projects, as well as the reconstruction and interpretation of recorded natural scenes.